{{short description|Senegalese-born author (born 1941)}} {{about|the author|the basketball player|Aminata Fall (basketball)}} {{Infobox writer <!-- For more information see :Template:Infobox Writer/doc. --> | name = Aminata Sow Fall | image = Aminata Sow Fall.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = | pseudonym = | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1941|04|27}} | birth_place = Saint-Louis, Senegal | death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = | language = Wolof, French | nationality = Senegalese | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = Sorbonne | period = | genre = Novel; short story | subject = | movement = | notableworks = ''La Grève des bàttu'' (''The Beggars' Strike'') | spouse = | partner = | children = 7 | relatives = | influences = | influenced = | awards = Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire (1980); Prix International Alioune Diop (1982) | signature = | signature_alt = | website = <!-- www.example.com --> | portaldisp = }} '''Aminata Sow Fall''' (born April 27, 1941) is a Senegalese-born author. While her native language is Wolof, her books are written in French. She is considered "the first published woman novelist from francophone Black Africa".<ref>Busby, Margaret (1992), ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent'', London: Vintage, 1993, p. 525.</ref>
==Life== She was born in Saint-Louis, Senegal,<ref>{{Cite web |title=#100AfricanWomenWriters: 9. Aminata Sow Fall |url=http://www.bookshybooks.com/2017/06/100africanwomenwriters-9-aminata-sow_19.html |access-date=2023-05-20 |website=bookshy}}</ref> where she grew up before moving to Dakar to finish her secondary schooling.<ref name="And Other Stories">{{Cite web |title=Aminata Sow Fall {{!}} Biography |url=https://www.andotherstories.org/authors/aminata-sow-fall/ |date=June 2017|access-date=2023-05-20 |website=And Other Stories |language=en}}</ref> After this, she earned a degree in Modern Languages at the Sorbonne<ref name="international literature festival berlin">{{Cite web |title=Aminata Sow Fall |url=https://literaturfestival.com/en/authors/aminata-sow-fall/ |access-date=2023-05-27 |website=international literature festival berlin |language=en-US}}</ref> in Paris, France, and became a teacher upon returning to Senegal.<ref name=UWA>[http://aflit.arts.uwa.edu.au/SowFallAminata.html "Aminata Sow Fall"], The University of Western Australia/French, 25 December 1995.</ref> She was a member of the Commission for Educational Reform responsible for the introduction of African literature into the French syllabus in Senegal, before becoming director of La Propriété littéraire (The Literary Property) in Dakar (1979–88).<ref name=UWA /> She was the Director of the Literature Section of the Ministry of Culture and also became the Director of the Centre d'Etudes des Civilations, a center that researches Senegal's culture and oral literature. Her works are often concerned with social issues, such as poverty and corruption, and with her experience in both Paris and Senegal, she explores the many of traditions and cultures within both of these societies.
She was appointed the first woman president of Senegal's Writers' Association in 1985. Two years later, in 1987, she founded the "Centre Africain d'Animation et d'Echanges Culturels", an organisation that promotes young writers through literature festivals, seminars, and competitions, publishing them in the affiliated publishing house Éditions Khoudia, which she founded in 1990. She is a member of the Ordre de Mérite. Senegal's Directorate of Books and Reading named their "Aminata Sow Fall Prize for Creativity" after her, a manuscript prize they set up in conjunction with the International Book Fair to support young literary creators. She played the part of Aunt Oumy in Djibril Diop Mambéty's classic 1973 road movie Touki Bouki.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-05-27 |title=Festival de Cannes - International film festival for more than 75 years |url=https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/ |access-date=2023-05-27 |website=Festival de Cannes |language=en-US}}</ref>
Growing up in an education system designed and run by the French, Sow Fall was only exposed to a few names from African literature growing up, since this was a system that prioritised Western names and titles. With this experience of living and being educated in both non-Western Senegal and Western France, Sow Fall separated herself from other African writers, who, she expresses, often feel that they must situate themselves in relation to the West. She feels that African literature would gain from a sense of self-discovery through writing, a common experience for Western authors, and from leaving behind the self-consciousness which she feels many African authors have historically carried into their literature.
==Awards== * 1980 – Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire for ''La Grève des bàttu''. * 1982 – Prix International Alioune Diop for ''L'Appel des arènes''. * 1997 – honorary doctorate from Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts.<ref name="And Other Stories" />
==Writing== {{Library resources box|by=yes|viaf=12308074}} Sow Fall's books include: *''Le Revenant'',<ref name="And Other Stories" /> Nouvelles Éditions africaines, 1976. {{ISBN|2 7236 0109 9}}. *''L'empire du mensonge'' (2018). ISBN 979-1035600068 *''Femmes d'Afrique'' (2001). ISBN 9782842612979 *''La Grève des bàttu'' (1979);<ref name="international literature festival berlin" /> Nouvelles Éditions africaines, 1980; Serpent à plumes (paperback 2001), {{ISBN|2-84261-250-7}} **''The Beggars' Strike'', trans. Dorothy Blair, Longman (1986), {{ISBN|0-582-00243-5}}. Extracts in ''Daughters of Africa'', ed. Margaret Busby, 1992. *''L'Appel des arènes'' (The Call of the Arena) (1982); Nouvelles Éditions africaines, 1993. {{ISBN|2 7236 0837 9}}. *''Ex-père de la nation: roman'', Paris: L'Harmattan, 1987. {{ISBN|2 85802 875 3}}. *''Douceurs du bercail'', Nouvelles Éditions ivoiriennes, 1998. {{ISBN|2 911725 46 8}}. *''Le jujubier du patriarche: roman'', Serpent à Plumes, 1998 *''Sur le flanc gauche du Belem''. Arles: Actes Sud, 2002. {{ISBN|2 7427 4044 9}}. *''Un grain de vie et d'espérance''. Paris: Françoise Truffaut éditions, 2002. {{ISBN|2-951661-45-2}}. *{{cite book| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v5EggaBeOpAC| title=Festins de la détresse: roman| publisher=Editions d'en bas| year= 2005| isbn= 978-2-8290-0318-9}} *''L'Empire du mensonge'', Le Serpent à Plumes, 2017, {{ISBN|9791035600075}}. The film ''Battu'' (2000) by director Cheick Oumar Sissoko is based on Sow Fall's novel ''La Grève des bàttu''.
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * Gikandi, Simon, ''Encyclopedia of African Literature'', Routledge (2002), pp. 518–9. {{ISBN|0-415-23019-5}} * Guèye, Médoune, ''Aminata Sow Fall: Oralité et société dans l'oeuvre romanesque'', Editions L'Harmattan (2005). {{ISBN|2-7475-8557-3}} * {{cite journal|doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a098055 |jstor=722441 |title=An Interview with Aminata Sow Fall |year=1988 |last1=Hawkins |first1=Peter |journal=African Affairs |volume=87 |issue=348 |pages=419–430 }} *{{cite book| url=https://archive.org/details/africanfrancopho0000unse| url-access=registration| page=[https://archive.org/details/africanfrancopho0000unse/page/163 163]| quote=aminata sow fall.| chapter=Marxist Intertext, Islamic Reinscription?| title=African Francophone Writing: a critical introduction|editor1-first=Laïla |editor1-last=Ibnlfassi |editor2=Nicki Hitchcott| publisher=Berg| year= 1996| isbn= 978-1-85973-014-0 }} *Azodo, Ada Uzoamaka, ''Emerging Perspectives on Aminata Sow Fall: The Real and the Imaginary in her Novels'', Africa World Press, 2007. {{ISBN|978-1-59221-557-7}}. * {{cite journal|url=http://www.mcser.org/journal/index.php/mjss/article/viewFile/284/300 |doi=10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n6p67 |title=Aminata Sow Fall's Works: A Compendium of Development-Oriented Issues |year=2013 |last1=Udousoro |first1=Irene |journal=Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences |doi-access=free }} * Mutunda, Sylvester N., "Descriptions of masculinity in African women's creative writing", Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2015. * {{cite journal|jstor=722441 |title=An Interview with Aminata Sow Fall |last1=Hawkins |first1=Peter |journal=African Affairs |year=1988 |volume=87 |issue=348 |pages=419–430 |doi=10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a098055 }} * {{cite journal|jstor=160887 |title=Aminata Sow Fall and the Centre Africain d'Animation et d'Echanges Culturels in Senegal |last1=Bobia |first1=Rosa |last2=Staunton |first2=Cheryl |journal=The Journal of Modern African Studies |year=1991 |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=529–532 |doi=10.1017/S0022278X00000653 |s2cid=251050061 }} * Toivanen, Anna-Leena, "Failing cosmopolitanism: aborted transnational journeys in novels by Monique Ilboudo, Sefi Atta and Aminata Sow Fall", ''Journal of postcolonial writing'', 2016. * Guèye, Médoune, "Criticism, Écriture, and Orality in the African Novel: Oral Discourse in Aminata Sow Fall's Work", ''Research in African Literatures'', 2014. {{ProQuest|1535271923}} * Dieng, Mamadou, "Kinship and Friendship in Hardship: A Comparative Analysis of Aminata Sow Fall's Le Revenant and John Francis Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby", ''The Journal of Pan African Studies'', 2016. {{ProQuest|1813110318}} * {{cite journal|doi=10.1353/wfs.2008.0016 |title=Emerging Perspectives on Aminata Sow Fall: The Real and the Imaginary in Her Novels ed. By Ada Uzoamaka Azodo |year=2008 |last1=Block |first1=Marcelline |journal=Women in French Studies |volume=16 |pages=139–140 |s2cid=192541407 }} * {{cite journal|doi=10.1386/ijfs.10.1and2.67_1 |title=Domestic matters: Representations of home in the writings of Mariama B, Calixthe Beyala and Aminata Sow Fall |year=2007 |last1=Mortimer |first1=Mildred |journal=International Journal of Francophone Studies |volume=10 |pages=67–83 }} {{incubator|vai/ꕉꕆꕯꕚ ꖇꕴ ꕘꔷ}} {{Authority control}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2016}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sow Fall, Aminata}} Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:20th-century novelists Category:20th-century women writers Category:21st-century novelists Category:21st-century women writers Category:People from Saint-Louis, Senegal Category:Recipients of orders, decorations, and medals of Senegal Category:Senegalese novelists Category:Senegalese women novelists Category:French-language Senegalese writers Category:Grand prix littéraire d'Afrique noire winners